Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Kickboxing Class

Any day you can put up photos of Gina Carano (in red), and Kyra Gracie (in workout gear) is a good day.

Kickboxing Class:

it was me + 16 women + a woman instructor.

The woman instructor taught mostly exercise, plus a couple of self-defense moves, plus some inspiration to the students - including exhortation to really give it to the imaginary persons we were punching and kicking. We practiced various punches, kicks, throwing elbows, and also driving the palm of the hand through someone's nose. That palm of the hand thing can kill somebody pretty easily.

Uncomfortable. I do not wish to practice killing people with the palm of my hand. Plus, I am a big man. If I really throw myself into punching the imaginary person; if I really throw myself into deploying the palm of my hand into the underside of an imaginary person's nose: I would make a vicious and scary looking sight. I didn't come here to be a vicious and scary looking sight. I just came here to exercise.

I will not be going back to this class. Plus, I think this was instructor malpractice: the women in the class were not as strong or as expert as Gina Carano, and the instructor had no business building their confidence in their ability to prevail in a fight against a man. A self-defense class is one thing: it would discuss strategy and situational awareness; it would carefully practice what to do when. A woman can effectively defend herself in the right situations, and a true self-defense class will discuss what are the right situations to take such action. Conversely, our kickboxing instructor was taking a chance on creating foolish confidence amongst her students.

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If you are a woman, and you are worried about security in your home, do this:

1. Inspect your home and take common sense security precautions: outside lights, good locks, safe doors and windows, other smart protection.

2. Get a dog, and then train the dog. Then get a second dog and train that dog.

3. Pepper spray.

4. Purchase a gun, and learn to use it. Take a class.

5. If you still want more, investigate an alarm.

6. If you still want more, take a true self-defense class.

7. If you still want more, hire the security service.8. If you still want more, move to a gated community.